Yesterday, Lucas had his surgery for his inguinal hernia to be removed. We woke up bright and early! 4:30 came VERY quickly, especially because Lucas was up the night before at 1:30 AM. Once we got up and moving and got some coffee in us we got the little man out of his bed and headed for the car. Brrrrrr was it cold and the wind was CRAZY! But luckily, he stayed asleep up until we put him in the car seat. Then we were on our way to the hospital. When we arrived Nonna dropped us off at the door and we were greeted by Great-Grandma Sharon and Great-Grandpa Gary. We got checked in and were handed a pager & numbers to keep track of the times for the surgery. Then we went to registration to get all of the billing things taken care of. Once we were done we went to the waiting area and Lucas got to see Grandpa Rod, Grandma Audrey and Grandpa Jim and Nonna again. Then he got to play a little bit before we were called back to a different waiting area.
He played with some different toys and watched his movie while we waited. 
We met with the nurse first as she went over questions with us regarding Lucas's health information. She gave us his gown and a pair of booties to put on him closer to the operation. The picture to the left is of him playing with the booties. 
Once those questions were answered we met with the Children's Care Specialist who checked in to see if we had any questions regarding the procedure and gave us a sleep-gas mask that they use during the surgery to get him familiar with it. We took turns putting the gas mask on Lucas's face and then our faces. It was strawberry flavored and he liked the smell of it! Can't you tell?
Next the Anesthesiologist came in to go over his job and what his would be doing during the surgery. He listened to Lucas's breathing and watched a quick part of Lucas's movie with him as he was doing it. He said that there would be the sleep-gas mask to put him under before they put in IV's. Then they would input a breathing tube to monitor his breathing.
After that the Surgical Nurse, Sue, came in to introduce herself to us and Lucas and to see which way we thought would be easiest to take him back to the operating room. After looking at a wagon vs a little car, we picked the little car. He played in it while we waited for Dr. Irish to arrive.
Once Dr. Irish arrived he went over the basics of the procedure again and told us it would be about an hour or so before we would see Lucas. Then they took him back in that little car. We got to watch him be driven away once he was far enough down the hallway to the surgery room.
We went and waited in the family waiting room with all of his grandparents. After about 30 minutes we were paged to meet with Dr. Irish. He explained to us that everything went very well and he didn't have to do all of the procedure they had planned on because the tube they were planning to close for him had already closed on its own. That was good news!! Then he said as soon as he started waking up they would page us again. So back to the waiting room Matt and I went. 
About 15 minutes later we were paged and were directed back to his recovery room to await his arrival. Amy his recovery room nurse brought him right in with a bottle of Pedialite. He snuggled up right in my arms. They took his oxygen levels and checked his blood pressure. Then we brought everyone back in groups once we got him settled. He was very out of it and was VERY thirsty. He got uncomfortable and started squirming around. 
This made him even more uncomfortable because of the IV needle still in his foot. So he started crying and got very restless. This upset me because I didn't know how to hold him without hurting him and I just got overwhelmed all at once. So daddy took a turn while I pulled myself together. Lucas's watched some more of his movie and had more Pedialite and some apple juice. 
Once I pulled myself back together it was my turn to snuggle him. He ended up falling back to sleep. 
When he woke up the second time after his surgery he was much happier. The nurse came back in and removed the IV needle. Checked his temperature and oxygen levels, all were perfect. We were then fully discharged with instructions and phone numbers "just in case".
Here he was on the way home!
He played with Macie last night and slept a really decent amount last night! He seems to be almost pain free unless touched in the direct area of the incision. He has a follow up appointment next Tuesday. The doctor will remove his bandage then and we will just keep an eye out for anything out of the normal until then. But he seems to be well on his way to full recovery quickly!
With love,
Matthew, Heather and Gimpy-butt
aka Lucas ;)
